Before the late Bray Wyatt was sidelined with an illness, the plan had been for him to square off with Bobby Lashley at this year's WrestleMania. With no opponent and the clock ticking down, there simply wasn't room for him on the card and one of WWE's top Superstars ended up being sidelined.
Ultimately, all he did at the Show of Shows was walk out on the stage with his Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal trophy. He won that on SmackDown the Friday before the PLE and it was likely meant to serve as a consolation prize for the former WWE Champion.
WrestlingNews.co recently caught up with Lashley to get his take on not being on the WrestleMania card (which played out across not one, but two nights). As you might expect, it was a moment in his career that he doesn't particularly care to look back on.
"I was beyond disappointed. I'm not gonna say pessimistic disappointed, because I am a kind of chill person. And the thing that disappoints me the most is all the work that I put in, you know. We have live events throughout the year. I'm on all of them. Every one of the pay-per-views. We had some mix ups and change ups. And then next, you know, I'm pulled off the biggest show. It sucked to me, because I have my kids and leading up to it they were like, 'Dad are we going to Wrestlemania?' And I was like, 'Look, yeah, if you guys want to go, I just don't know if I'm gonna be do anything there.'"
"And all the while I was like, 'There's no way that's gonna be. I have to be in WrestleMania. I've been in every WrestleMania in my entire career with the WWE, I've always been a spotlight match. I have been in every pay-per-view, everything. Then we get closer and closer. And then even the first day, the first day my kids called me up that night. And they're like, 'Hey Dad, are you going to be on?' Because I would have just flew them right in if I was going to be out. They had some stuff going on. And then the next day comes around, and then I saw all kinds of mix-ups. You know, just random people jumping in there."
"To me, it was probably one of the lowest points of my career. And I think right now I kind of want to make a change. I kind of took more of a heel approach there for a while afterwards, because I needed some redemption for that. And I wanted to take out some of these guys. I left the company for a little while, never said anything bad about the company. I never tried to put down the company. I came back after doing some independents and just getting some different work rates [and] working with some different people. Success in other companies and coming back and the things that I had to go through in order to get back to that chance of winning a world title...we're still moving forward."
"I have a great opportunity now, which I'm trying to focus my attention on. And I'd like another world title run. I'm in great shape, I will work my ass off. I'm building a team. I work with other people having good matches when I have an opportunity to have matches. But um, I think that I should and could have another good title run."
While Lashley did end up falling by the wayside for a time, it's clear WWE is now planning something big for him as part of his current alliance with The Street Profits. Despite being a heel, fans continue to cheer for Bobby and while Triple H is handling the storyline in a slow-burn manner, it's bound to be leading to something big.
Let us know what you think about Lashley's comments in the usual place.